In one week, my new book, Career Renegade: How To Make A Great Living Doing What You Love will be released, but you don’t have to wait to begin reading it…

You can download the entire first chapter (the Intro) and dive into it right now.

Here are the first few paragraphs to get you going…

IT’S FUNNY HOW THE CORPORATE grind gets hold of you.

By the time you graduate college or grad-school, a mountain of debt keeps you locked into a quest to earn as much as possible and pay off your loans.  With each year, you earn more and fight your way up the ladder.  But, then, an odd thing happens.

Ever wonder whether you listen to conventional wisdom?

I just shared my thoughts on this over at CareerRenegade.com. Here’s a snippet for you…

Conventional wisdom is, by default, drawn out of the mass experience of people…

Mass-experience translates to commonality, to averages, to medians.  When you live your life based on conventional-wisdom, then, it stands to reason you can expect to live a conventional, average, middle-of-the-road life.

Question is—is that what you want?

Theodore Roosevelt wrote:

More fun stuff to come before the end of the week…

But, this evening, as we move into a time where millions of people explore taking action in the direction of change, looking backwards and forwards and maybe adjusting course, I just wanted to take a moment to share a passage from George Bernard Shaw that never ceases to inspire me.

It’s how I try to live my life…

I don’t always succeed, but, man, it’s fun trying.

Enjoy…

I have to admit, I never played it out this far…

But, Wednesday night, I found myself helping my daughter put out cookies and milk for Santa. Problem is…we’re Jewish.

Here’s how it went down.

I was raised in a household that was one part free-loving hippie, one part Jewish, one part academic and one part art rebel. My wife was raised Jewish, but celebrated Christmas, out of respect for her Roman Catholic dad…and her chance to double down on presents.

It’s not often you get a chance to grill someone you admire…

Let alone, a married father of six, newspaper columnist turned speechwriter turned blogger, author..and marathoner. So, when I learned Leo Babauta of ZenHabits fame had a new book coming out, I jumped on the opportunity.

You can dive into our conversation below.

And, if you’re looking to simplify, reconnect with what really matters in life and carve out more time to do what you love with the people you love, you’ll definitely want to grab a copy of The Power of Less, The: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life right away!

Last night, I sent the below e-mail to my community of thousands at Sonic Yoga NYC…

Some saw it coming, others e-mailed in varying states of shock, then volumes of replies came (and continue to come) that have left me feeling nothing but awed and grateful.

So, I thought it’d be a good idea to share it with my community here, as well.

The date was September 10 2001.

I had a 3-month old daughter and I’d just signed the lease on what I hoped would grow into one of the most vibrant yoga communities in New York.

From single mom with two kids on the verge of bankruptcy to successful super-affiliate, internet marketer, blogger and online marketing strategist, Clicknewz.com founder Lynn Terry is a powerful combination of will, intelligence and authentic kindness.

In this killer one-hour Renegade Profile, she reveals:

• How she went from supporting 7 people in an 800 square foot apartment to generating a great income and living in her own home.
• How she uses a simple egg-timer to balance working from home and playing with her kids
• How she handled raising a special needs child, working at home, home-schooling two kids and building a business all at the same time.

In a challenging economy consumers flock to value. That’s part of the message shared in my latest guest post over at the wonderful SmallBizTrends.com blog for small business owners.

Here’s an excerpt:

It wasn’t so hard to skate by when all ships were buoyed, when everyone was flush with cash. You didn’t have to work so hard to show you were the best. Or at least better than others. You just had to be good enough to take a big enough piece of the pie to get by.

Not any more (though, honestly, that’s never been my approach anyway).

Ever wonder what you get for your money in most MBA programs?

Is it the immediately-actionable knowledge from classes? Not according to most people I’ve asked. Their answers usually included some variation of…

“it’s access to people with ideas worth spreading, the ability to help you develop your own and the connections to bring both to the world…oh, and make a killer living doing it.”

So, what if you could get all this, not in 2 years, but in 6 months…for free?